


Antithesis

by Albion19



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Love/Hate, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-08 07:30:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5488826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Albion19/pseuds/Albion19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo Ren finally tracks down Luke Skywalker but gets more than he bargained for. Kylo Ren/Rey, though largely one sided. Set after the events of TFA.</p><p>ETA: Previously called Caves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Waves crash against the shore, gulls screaming as they soar above, hovering for a moment before swooping down. The island rises from the ocean, it’s jagged peaks lost in mist.

Does he know? Can he feel him? He hopes so. Kylo Ren makes his way up the roughly hewn steps, a sick excitement making him almost dizzy. He has waited for so long and the information he has seeked was only placed into his hands mere hours ago. Now everything is falling, a constant forward momentum.

This is it, with this the conflict will be defeated and he can return to his master victorious. The pain will stop, crushed into dust. His mother...well, she too will have the freedom from this twisting pain that plagues him. He just has to be strong.

The air is cold and thin at this height he looks down at his shuttle craft below and grips the handle of his saber. His uncle is old but age is no indicator of weakness. He will be swift and sure, nothing will stop him.

_The girl…_

He tightens his fist around the hilt. The girl has never been far from his thoughts and he has hungered to see her again almost as much as his uncle. For a time he spent months and months searching for her, his need to claim her overwhelming. It obliterated that confusing time after the Star Destroyer, his mind focused on her rather than the gentle touch of a hand on his face. She left her mark there instead.

Even now he does not know if he wants to kill her or save her. Master Snoke is right, she is meant to be at his side and one day that time will come. Like calls to like.

_Stop thinking about her. Focus._

He closes his eyes, pushing her glaring gaze from his mind and continues the climb. His uncle will die at his feet and soon every trace of Skywalker blood will be gone and he will be free.

 

*

 

Rey inhales, feeling the way the air passes through her nostrils and out, the flow of her blood and the wave of her hair in the wind. He is right, the Force is everywhere. The sea is her blood, the air the wind and her hair the sway of trees. Death is an illusion, he has told her, we just...converge. She smiles, imagining being the foam on the sea and the fish below. She loves the ocean, the power and unpredictability of it. The constant resonance will echo in her ears when she is far away and the world is silent.

As the gulls cry overhead she rises to her feet, the lightsaber tucked into her belt. She had offered it to him but he had just turned away, simply claiming if it was his any longer he would have it. Rey takes it out and adopts a fighting stance, shoulders back and standing to the side, to offer as little of her body as possible. She practices every day, and though he mostly regards her with a distant but watchful appraisal she had seen him smile.

Sometimes he seems to want to tell her something, she can feel it on the air but then the moment passes. She supposes if it is important he will tell her when it is right.

“Maybe in a decade or two…” she sighs, imagining being on the isle for that long, something that Master Luke had been frank about. Jedi spend years training to become fully initiated. It is a life of study and austerity, though he has confessed that he finds some of those old rules nonsense. Still, stuck on a monastery in the middle of vast and wild sea, for all it’s beauty, is a prospect she does not want to linger on. She has already spent so long stuck in one place, she wants to see every shade of blue the sea can offer.

Moving from her perch she thrusts the unlit saber forward, unknowingly making the vibrating noises that accompanies the blade when an intense cold rips through her and she stumbles. Rey gasps, clutching at her chest as her heart pounds against her rib cage.

_Luke! He’s in pain!_

Fumbling for the saber she races along the path, the dark hut of the stone settlement coming into view and from inside she can hear voices.

“She’s dead,” a voice spits, shaking with anger and at the sound Rey feels another shard of ice go through her. Kylo Ren.

“No she is not. She is alive because - because I feel her pain. You spared her.”

“She will die, as you will,” his voice wavers and the crackle of his saber buzzes angrily. Rey inhales, calms herself even as her heart races and steps into the shadows of the room. Luke is on the floor, bleeding heavily. Kylo Ren stands over him, the tip of his red blade pointed at the old man’s throat.

Rey bares her teeth, about to come forward when with the slightest movement of his bloody fingers Luke stops her. A voice speaks into her mind, calm and gentle.

_Stay in the shadows…Be patient._

She wants to burst into the light of the room, to confront Kylo but she stays still, body poised to act. The man she had bested months ago begins to pace, his saber swiping back and forth and her eyes are drawn to the erratic movement. Luke looks at him with nothing but pity.

“You showed her mercy.”

“Weakness,” the word is spat and she knows his face is twisted in disgust. At this distance she can feel the utter torment he is in, the sickly twist of pain and bloodlust. The desperation. He is like a wounded predator, some beast ready to lash out at anything that moves, even an act of kindness.

 _How does he not sense me?_ she thinks but the thought is gone when Luke lifts his wounded arm and the blade is back at his throat.

“I failed you Ben and I am sorry...but there is still hope.”

Kylo Ren - _Ben_ \- scoffs. The lines of his back are taut, every muscle is coiled to spring. As she is.

“You’re mistaken, about a great many things. You are going to die and then...there will be nothing,” his voice shudders at the prospect before he inhales and swings his sword up to deliver a death blow. Rey springs forward.

But the blow never falls. His saber, its blade erratic and crackling, suddenly goes dead. Kylo looks up at it, dumbfounded before Rey barrels into him, her small stature upsetting his balance but he reacts quickly and brings her down with him. The saber flies out of her hand.

“You!”

“Me,” she grits her teeth, struggling to get him off her. She flips onto her front, elbowing him in the face and reaches for the light saber but pressed against her back he reaches out his own hand. She feels the metal brush against her fingertips, knows that she is the one it wants to go to but he slams her hand down and catches the light saber with the other.

“No!”

“This belongs to me,” he breathes into her ear and she is acutely aware of his weight on top of her. Teeth gritting together she lowers her forehead to the floor and then cracks the back of her head against his face. He roars and she feels the loss of him before his fingers tangle in her loose hair and drags her up. Rey screams, reaching up but with a flash of blue light a searing heat descends by her bare throat.

“Let her go,” Luke pleads weakly and Rey, through her fear and anger, is confused. Is he so hurt that he cannot act?

 _Maybe I do not rely on that,on him..._ the voice is quiet and self assured. She had bested the man behind her and she can and will do it again. Maybe this is what he has been training her for.

“There’s someone who is eager to meet her,” Kylo answers, backing them both up to the door and Rey uses the Force to push it closed but he growls and the door is blasted from its hinges. Rey has one last look at Luke, who has collapsed. He lifts his head and smiles at her with tenderness. Love.

_Save her...save them…_

Rey frowns, struggling to free herself as Kylo pushes them along the path. The sea is dark and rushing below and she manages to rip herself free, blasting him back with the Force. She races to the cliff edge, preparing to jump when his hand wraps around her arm and yanks her back.

“You’re more trouble than you’re worth,” he utters as he swings her around to face him. Rey has a glimpse of his dark eyes, the scar on his face before he lifts a hand to her forehead and with a  strange gentle touch she falls into his arms.

 

*

 

He manages to keep it together but after securing her he sits on the at the helm of his ship, looking over the island as the sun begins to rise. He can feel him, his peace and forgiveness pulsing out of the centre of the island and with every beat something ebbs within him, something vast and repulsive.

_You showed mercy…_

Hands shaking Kylo Ren gropes for the board and punches in command after command. Streaks of light travel through the air, illuminating the water before the island explodes in great eruptions of earth and stone. Pounding his fists he watches the island fall into the sea, unaware of the girl whimpering behind him.

Hours later, amidst the silence and stillness of space, he sits beside her as she wakes. Neither speak, her eyes growing increasingly more devastated but soon that turns to a barely concealed rage. Good, that is what he wants. He gazes at her calmly, hollowly until she speaks, her breathing ragged.

“He is alive.”

“Yes but you can feel the way his life is slipping away as clearly as I can. Soon he will be gone too.”

“You’re the most repulsive person I have ever met,” she shouts and he almost lifts a hand to his face. He smiles thinly.

“And you’re my guest.”

“Prisoner!” she barks, tugging on her restraints.

“For now…” he stands and looks down at his broken light saber. Rey smirks.

 

“It doesn’t work. I will get mine back and then nothing will save you.”

Kylo Ren looks up and after a beat he leans over her. She does not back down. “I’m taking you to my master...but you’re right. This lightsaber,” he holds up the weapon that had been hers, “is too precious to be in either of our hands. We’re going to take a detour,” he says, tilting his head, his eyes oddly soft.

“What?”

“I need a new saber crystal.”

  
“And I’m sure you’ll do another expert job of making a new one... _Ben_ ,” she adds, snarling his old name and he leans back, face twisting in irritation. He needs a new saber and if his Master is right about Rey she will need one too...if they do not kill each other before reaching the caves that is…


	2. Chapter 2

She is insufferable.

Hours before he had awoken to a shrill screech and then a deafening bang and he had found her crouched outside the cabin he had locked her in. Using the Force she had buckled the reinforced door, an endeavour that must have taken her hours judging by the sweat trickling down her face.

“You can’t keep me imprisoned,” she panted and he had sighed.

“You can destroy all the doors, there’s nowhere for you to run,” he motioned to the stars through the observation window and Rey’s shoulders flexed.

“We’ll see,” she shot up from her crouch as he moved to grab her arm, other hand lifting to her temple. Rey locked eyes with him, leaning back. “Do you consider me such a threat that you have to constantly knock me out?”

He scoffed, pulling her closer. “Better than having to hear you shout. Your curses are…imaginative.”

“If that’s the case I’ll try not to offend your delicate ears,” she said, eyeing him and he managed not to roll his eyes before shoving her to walk before him. Since then she has been sitting ramrod straight in the seat beside him, not saying a word. The silence is worse somehow and he itches to delve into her mind but he hesitates.

That door opens both ways.

“You have no lightsaber of your own yet, do you?”

They are flying closer to their destination, a place that she had asked offhandedly but he is not stupid. She will be in the dark until they reach his Master.

“Apart from the one you stole.”

“Can’t steal something that was never yours to begin with.” He had safely stored his grandfather’s saber, along with his malfunctioning one, in a safe place. He is more powerful than she but he knows not to underestimate her. Giving her access to any weapon is foolish.

“A family heirloom? From what I’ve witnessed you don’t seem to hold the concept very highly.”

Kylo Ren grips the seat, staring straight ahead and slowly exhales. She angers him, more than he thought anyone could but all it does is feed him. He turns to her, silent and gaze heavy and she keeps the eye contact up for a lot longer than he intended. They look away at the same time.

“Your training is incomplete and ultimately ineffectual. Soon you will see.”

“See? With you?”

He stares at her dark reflection shinning against the console, remembering their first fight. Pain, exhaustion and shock but through it all his determination never wavered. He was not so proud to deny her strength but she was directionless, wasted. He could teach her. He will.

“Yes.”

“I have a mentor,” she clenches her jaw, fingers digging into the arms of the chair he has shackled her to. He looks up at her.

“Not for much longer,” he can sense how the old man is fading, a ghost already. Kylo Ren leans closer to her, ignoring the pain in her eyes. “If you had stayed with him you would in time be gleaned of such attachment. Death is final and that is suffering.”

Rey avoids looking into his eyes, biting the inside of her cheeks to stop crying. She shakes her head, swallowing convulsively before she speaks. “Do you suffer?” she asks, eyes on his. He leans closer, gaze travelling from wet eyes to tightly pressed lips and to her gulping throat. He can feel it all under her skin, a torrent of anguish and sighs softly.

“You would like me to, I can feel it. You want me to die.”

“You tried to kill me!” she fires back and his lip quirks.

“Because you were trying to kill me,” he leans back, his regard intense. “That anger, that hurt, is power. You have no idea how to use it, to channel it because you’ve only been told to purge it. That is weakness.”

“Your words are nothing. I won’t join you,” she stares steadfastly ahead again, chin up and muscles rigid. Kylo Ren stands, saying nothing. She will face his Master, just as he had once and her doubts will be as nothing. As he moves to check the console a voice drifts into his mind, the words deeply familiar.

_Rule of two: master and apprentice. No more, no less._

Kylo Ren stares at the back of the chair Rey is stuck in and suddenly wishes that he had never carried the girl onto his ship.

 

*

 

She is frightened. She tries to govern the fear, as Master Luke has shown her, but as soon as she grasps the Force and that enveloping peace it deteriorates against a burst of anxiety. He does not want to kill her and she does not wish to die but a fight to gain her freedom seems so much simpler than the fate Kylo Ren wants for her.

Joining his side is an impossibility and nothing he says or tries to do will change that. She irritates him intensely, she can tell by the way his jaw clenches and his hand reaches for a missing lightsaber and she knows making him angry is reckless, she has seen first hand how dangerous he is but having that little control over the situation makes her feel stable. She does not know where she is or where she is going but she feels she will have all the answers soon, she just has to be patient.

“I don’t think your Master is as attuned to the Force as you think Ben,” she says as he prepares to land on a unknown planet below. His hands flex and he exhales audibly behind the mask he has put back on. He stands and she has to guess what his expression is as he stares down at her.

“If you think being annoying will result in me jettisoning you out towards the nearest asteroid than you are mistaken. _Girl_ ,” he adds as he flies them into the atmosphere of the planet and they are shrouded in cloud.

“I just mean out of the billions and billions of people in the galaxy he picks me. I’m sure there must be some budding psychopath who will better benefit.” she is being belligerent but it is a fair question. Why her?

He takes some time before answering, making her think he won’t when he leans forward and takes off his mask. The scar on his face, the one she had given him, is red against pale skin. His gaze is unreadable at first but soon his eyes gleam with emotion. “We felt an awakening in the Force. I felt it, across space and star systems, this beat, like a heart. You, I felt you.”

“I’m nobody,” she answers, shaken by his response. He gives her an odd smile.

“Darth Vader came from a similar world, a similar fate and he became a great Sith Lord, the greatest,” his voice is soft with reverence and Rey frowns.

“But he renounced that life, Master Luke told me,” she tries to reason with him but Kylo Ren straightens, staring down at his helmet, gaze losing focus.

“The Light side of the Force is pervasive, a constant presence that you have to battle with every moment. He was tested and he succumbed. Soon I will have no such temptations,” he places his helmet back on and Rey feels like something has snapped between them. Uncomfortable with the tension she watches him land the ship in total darkness. He makes sure her restraints are sound and without a pause he lifts his hand to her temple.

“I’m not fooled. You’ve spent your life breaking into places. These cuffs are nothing to you.”

“No!”

Darkness covers her vision as the tips of his gloved fingers touch her temple softly.

 

*

 

She dreams of the sea boiling, of great fissures cracking open and the sky falling. The island sinks, the ancient temple tumbling to the seabed and as the stars and sun streak through the shifting sky the sea grows calm. Her staff floats on the water and Rey reaches for it but another hand plucks it up before it sinks. Luke Skywalker staggers, emerging from a cave to look at the sea and Rey smiles, tears welling in her eyes.

_You made it to another island._

Her voice is a faint echo, barely audible. Master Luke moves to a small stone hut and tends to a fire. He does not look at her and Rey feels her throat tighten with desperation.

_I need you, please help me._

“...Have faith. You are exactly where you need to be,” he answers and she crouches down to stare at him.

_You can see me._

“No but I know you’re there. Do not come back for me Rey, stay on your path,” Luke insists and he grimaces. Kylo Ren had not killed him but the Jedi is gravely wounded. Rey wishes she could comfort him.

_He wants to convert me, turn me to the dark. I won’t, I promise!_

“He is lonely, conflicted...he is as unpredictable as you are steadfast. Leia, his mother, my sister, is alive. He wars against the Light but nothing can withstand it.”

 _I will find her and then we’re coming right back here. I have my training to finish_ , she says, smiling weakly and he reaches for her but she feels nothing.

“You will be tested but I know you are strong. Save them.”

Rey shakes her head, thinking of the man who has kidnapped her. _He doesn’t want to be and even if I could why should I? He’s a murderer._

“He is...and yet you live. Compassion resides in him and that is what you must call on. The Jedi protect and save life, even the most wretched and my nephew...he is in great pain.”

Luke stalls, looking haunted and Rey feels pity for him but for Kylo Ren? She barely knows him and he has only filled her life with conflict. She does not know if she has it in her. But maybe that is not the point, maybe all she has to do is convince Ren that she does.

Rey stands, gazing down at her fallen Master. Does she detect a glimmer of unease? A melancholy? Rey leans down, eyes to his.

_I won’t fail you. I will save General Organa and I will try to bring her son back to the Light. If I fail it will be because he is beyond saving, not because I do not want to._

Luke smiles again, which turns into a wince as he lies down. “Nothing is beyond saving, only the limitation we place on forgiveness. Good luck Rey and may the Force be with you.”

Rey smiles, leaning back up. “May Force be with you.”

“What?”

Rey opens her eyes, a ghost of a smile still on her lips and sees Kylo Ren before her.  She blinks, disorientated. Was it a dream or had Luke really been there? Had she? She focuses on Ren as he places his helmet on his seat and sighs, giving her a once over. Rey looks down and realises with a jolt that her restraints are open.

“Did you?”

“And let you steal my ship? No.”

“I must have done it while dreaming…” she swallows her surprise. Her ability, something that has slumbered since childhood, flares through her, a will of it’s own. The Force flows through her like a river and she has only just begun to control it. It has awoken...since meeting him. She moves from the chair, regarding him carefully as he stands in silence but he does not stop her. She does not trust him and he clearly feels the same so how will this work? Rey narrows her eyes, chin lifting and he tenses.

“You said that your Master wants to meet me, to train me. That will not happen...but I won’t be imprisoned by you or anyone. I will face him and I will prove myself stronger than you.”

She  moves to sit in the co-pilot seat and after a pause he joins her. “You are strong...but of the Dark Side you know nothing.”

“It’s evil.”

“It’s the Force, it’s neither good nor evil. I was like you once, mind polluted with lies and half truths. You’ll see soon and when you do the Jedi will finally end.”

He gazes at her with a tempered earnestness, almost eager and she remembers what Luke said. There is compassion in him but she never promised to make this easy. Rey stares at him with an eyebrow cocked.

“I’m not a Jedi. Yet.”

“And will never be.”

Rey shakes her head, looking at the black screen before her and watches his distorted reflection as the ship ascends. How can she save _him_ from the dark when he believes with a will far stronger than her conviction that he can save _her_ from the light?

  
His reflection blinks away as they jump into warp. Stars and the dark of space blend into a wild vortex and she stares until nothing seems real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how many chapters this will be but I do want this to be a slow burn...


	3. Chapter 3

He can‘t leave her alone on the ship because she will escape. She proved that by listing every mechanical aspect of the shuttle that will open the ramp, in great and lengthy detail until he had said he would shield the ship with the Force.

“I’ll punch through it, right through the hull and strand us on whatever rock you’ve landed on if I have stay in here, with you, any longer.”

Her eyes had bored into his with a mulish intensity, his body dwarfing her, reminding him of someone he would rather forget and he knew he had lost. She is as stubborn as his mother but at least she has an excuse. This girl knows nothing but the brutish ways of scavenging but she looks at him like he’s beneath her.

He could not take her with him, the risk is too great and she only succumbs momentarily to the sleep he forces on her now. There is only one solution. Ren relaxes, eyes fixed confidently on hers and lowers his voice so she has to lean closer to listen.

“ _You will stay by the ship, you will not move or talk_.”

She blinks, mouth parting. “What?”

Irritation flitters through him and he concentrates ferociously. “ _You will stay by the ship, you will not move.”_

The confusion in her gaze fades to a dreamy compliance. “I will stay by the ship, I will not move.”

He stares at her as she finishes speaking, voice monotone. He is unequalled in persuasion but doubt gnaws at him. He needs to get the crystal and then get back to his Master as soon as possible, the Resistance surely know of Skywalker's fate and the girl. They will come for her.

He cannot start doubting himself, not now. He is strong with the Force, as she is, but he has years and years worth of training. He just wishes that the kyber crystal was not on this planet. Ren moves back from her and lowers the ramp. Rey does not move, just stares at the shifting light beyond with a muted expression.

“Good...but if you’re pretending I will know,” he says and slips a cuff on her wrist. It clicks closed, a green light flickering into life. If she leaves the ship the tracker will activate. He pulls his hood up and exits the ship, which he has made impossible for anyone to steal: the ion engines are dismantled.

He gives her one more look, noting that she has not moved a foot and turns his back. The sooner he is off Coruscant the better.

 

*

 

Rey drifts in a comfortable fog. She will stay where she is. Here it’s safe and right. His voice surrounds her, a low pleasant baritone. She could sink into it, she has always liked the sound of other voices, the rhythms and inflections, the melody…Body still and peaceful she begins to hum, head tilting to the side. Music...like the music the old priest on Jakku would play for her and others as a child, music to accompany his fantastical tales.

_He taught me to read and write…_

Rey blinks, humming louder and realises slowly that the song in her head is also in her ears. String instruments and voices, snippets of a melody caught on the wind. She strains forward, eager to hear more and as she slides a foot forward something snaps apart in her mind and she reels.

“What the…” she exhales, hand going to her head and stares around her in confusion. Moments ago she was talking to Ren, threatening to blow up his ship and now he is gone. Gone. Rey holds a breath, hardly moving until she whirls around suddenly, checking her surroundings.

She is alone. “The idiot left the door open!” she grins, about to race from the ship when she pauses. What if he’s waiting? Rey lowers her hand and sees the dark cuff tightly around her wrist. A tracker. She has worn one before, a time she would rather forget, but she knows she can remove it, with time.

“I don’t have time. He’s grounded the ship. Go, go,” she urges herself and with a burst of speed she runs from the shuttle into a new world. When Ren had said he was looking for the whereabouts of crystals she has assumed he was going to a cave of some kind and as she crouches in a low run she sees lush grass and trees against a dark sky. A massive shape rises up before her, dominating the sky and at first she thinks it is a mountain but dismisses it. It is too slim and the music she had heard emanates from it.

It is a tower. An immense tower.

Rey stops by a tree, only half noticing that the light on her cuff has turned red when she hears voices approaching and lies flat in the grass. Two people walk leisurely before her, arms clasped and she blinks rapidly. The woman glitters and at first Rey thinks she is android but as they come closer she sees that thousands of jewels are sewn into the fabric of her beautiful dress. Rey, who has never seen such finery, lifts her head to watch them pass, her mouth open. They walk through the garden, passing a fountain and round a shed before disappearing from sight.

Rey closes her mouth with a snap, wondering where Ren has taken her, before she follows quickly, sticking to the shadows and peeks around the edge of the shed. All air leaves her lungs at the sight before her. Hundreds of people, just as lavishly dressed as the couple, dance and mingle and the couple she has followed sit at a grand table, reaching for glasses of wine. At that moment the smell of food reaches her nose and her stomach rumbles. Ren has feed her but she has lost her appetite since the fall of the Jedi temple.

Now it is back with a force but she cannot risk her freedom because of her stomach. Rey scans the shifting crowd for Kylo Ren but does not see him. She does not _feel_ him either and she trusts that sense more than her sight. She just needs to tell one of these people that she is in trouble.

Hiding the tracker in the sleeve of her robe she moves to the edge of the gathering, her eyes traveling upwards. The tower is huge, light spilling from it’s many windows and balconies and she is so engrossed that she bangs into something solid and almost falls over a low wall.

“Careful dear, it’s a long way down,” an elderly lady says and Rey smiles before looking down. Once again she is left breathless. She had thought she was on some estate in the middle of nowhere, the tower the only thing visible for miles but she looks down she sees how wrong she is. The building plummets down a thousand feet and through the air hundreds of ships and vessels flash past, heading to and from a shining city in the distance. The tower is just a spire.

“What - what city is that?” Rey asks, voice wavering a little. The elderly lady, who sits by an old man asleep, turns to her with a frown.

“City? That’s the gate.”

“The gate?”

“To this estate. Surely you know that?” she asks and Rey smiles and lift a hand to her head, feigning a headache. It’s not much of an act.

“Of course, sorry I’m a little disorientated with the height,” she backs away and realises too late that her tracker is visible but before she can hide it a hand wraps around her wrist and roughly pulls her around.

“What are you doing?” Kylo Ren hisses, pulling her away from the crowd to the edge of the terrace. He glares down at her, fingers tight on her skin.

“What does it look like?” she tugs her arm away and he reaches for her again but she gets a small table between them. “I’ll yell, I’ll tell everyone who you are.”

“Go ahead,” he answers, crossing his arms and his lips curls into a smirk. Rey hesitates, looking at the wealthy people around her. She has no idea where she is and to these people she looks like a scruffy nerfherder.

“Where am I?” she stares at Ren angrily and he smiles.

“These people will not help you,” he answers, coming around the table slowly as she backs away. "Did you really think I’d be unarmed around Resistant sympathisers?”

“They’re with you?” she looks at the people again, noting their extravagance and indulgence as a war rages and shakes her head. “Are they royalty?”

“No, just people with more money than sense.” He stops, hands gripping the edge of the table and leans forward. “They have the kyber crystals.”

“You’re here to trade for them?”

“I’m here to steal them,” he answers and Rey stills, surprised. He seems to have a disdain for thieves but maybe that only stretches to things that belong to him. Or think they do.

“So you haven’t found them yet?” if he had he would be dragging her back to the ship. Ren motions to the crowd and Rey spots the couple she had seen earlier walking through the garden. Even at this distance the woman’s dress sparkles with a fiery iridescence.

“She’s wearing enough kyber crystal to blow up this planet,” he says in a drawling tone and Rey almost laughs.

“So what, you’re going to pinch her dress? I don’t think it’ll fit.”

He gives her a stony, heavy lidded look across the table and she smiles before vaulting over the banister. A grassy lip edges the tower, running along it’s length but below that is a clear, stomach churning drop.

“There’s nowhere for you to go,” he growls out ahead of her and Rey slides to a stop. He tilts his head, looking over the edge for a moment before walking towards her.

“These people are here for a party, they obviously have transport.”

“Which you plan to steal,” he shakes his head, looking irritated. “Don’t tell your opponent how you plan to escape.”

“What?” she looks up, knowing that through the crowd is her only way out. She looks back at him, startled at how close he is now. “Maybe I’m lying.”

“You’re not. That is your only means of escape.”

“I could jump,” she counters.

“You’d be dead before you reached the bottom,” he answers impassively. Rey swallows, looking down for a long time before she lifts her eyes to his. He has not moved.

“You’re going to wait until the party is over and then take the dress. Why not just make her hand it over?”

“Her family is a great supporter of the First Order. It wouldn’t be...wise. I just need one crystal,” he adds and reaches for her arm. Rey moves back but does not run.

“Two, or are you rethinking your insane notion about training me?”

“Are you?” he asks but she says nothing, her gaze fixed on his. He exhales, before his eyes travel up and down her body. “You’re going to draw attention.”

Rey sneers as he takes hold of her arm and they climb back over the balustrade. Rey is dressed in the robe Luke had given her, now ripped and frayed but the man beside her is not in a better state. They could go back to the ship and wait but Rey knows her best chance of escape is staying right where she is. 

She sits on the edge of a huge potted plant as Ren sits by a table beside her. He looks stiff and as the time lengthens increasingly bored. These people are her enemy but she cannot take her eyes away from them.

“Shouldn’t you hide? They don’t know me but if they’re First Order supporters won’t they recognise you?”

“...they’ve never seen me without my mask,” he answers after a long silence and Rey regards him thoughtfully.

“Why do you wear it?”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t. I think it’s cowardly,” she replies, looking back at the crowd but not before she catches his eyebrows rising.

“Says the girl who was too scared to leave her junkyard of a planet.”

Rey stands. “I wasn’t scared to leave. I stayed because I had something worth waiting for,” she stands her ground, glaring into his upturned face. He snorts.

“For a family that abandoned you. Trust me, whatever hope you were clinging to was false. I know.”

She holds up a hand. “I really don’t care.” Whatever slight his family committed against him is nothing compared to what he has paid them back. Murdering his own father in cold blood, possibly fatally wounding his uncle and kidnapping his mother. Luke says that he can be saved but he disgusts her. If General Leia was safe she would not be here, she would be fighting him with everything she has.

But Leia is not safe and she has to find her and sticking with Ren is the surest way of rescuing the general. Rey sits back down, ignoring him until a tense silence stretches, one that starts to make the hair on the back of her neck rise. On Jakku storms would build and in her makeshift metal home electricity would flicker through the air. He is like that, a building storm and nothing to conduct it.

She knew it was dangerous to stay. “Come on, we should hide in that place. When she takes off the dress and goes to bed I’ll take the jewels and you can be the look out.”

He stands, saying nothing as she walks ahead, tracing the edge of the dance floor before they slip into the grand foyer of the tower. He presses close against her back as they emerge into a crowd and that tension that spooled from him and made her skin tingle has shifted.

  
She feels combustible.


End file.
